Warehouse & AAR

[keeper]

Last Friday evening, Tom, Tom, Pete and I had a CombatZone evening, for which I built a warehouse with attached offices to use as terrain.  Although I never got around to putting a comedy company name on the side of the building I'm stuck on "C.O.Jones Importers", which is a bit lame, so if anyone has any good suggestions, they'd be most appreciated!

The terrain worked pretty well, and everyone was quite pleased, even though it only took a couple of nights to build from mounting board.  Its made of two sections, each 21 inches by 25 inches and it is pretty easy to transport, although you'll notice from a couple of the walls that a slight bend was picked up in the card in transit, but this was soon straightened out and didn't affect play.

The doors are just the pieces of card I cut out of the doorways, sprayed black instead of grey and mounted on some old Space Hulk card stands.  I think next time I make an order from em4, I'll pick up some card stands to use just with this model.

I'm also planning to use this terrain for Space Hulk, and perhaps as the inside of a ship for sci-fi role-playing, if we ever get around to that!!

I've got some game reports to write up, as soon as I have time, but for the moment here are some photos of the warehouse.  You comments and feedback are most welcome!

 
 

Edit:
I finished the first of the game reports.  Its on my webpage, and I don't want to just repeat it here, so visit: http://www.azaleanempire.co.uk/ and click on the "Hostage Rescue" link at the bottom of my table of contents, on the left.

[Calimero]

Nice. Do you plan on making the “comedy name sign” removable? I ask because this model could be use as the interior of a bunker or a secret bases for game ranging from WWII to WWWII and KKBB spies too.

[keeper]

Yeah, the company name sign would be removable.  I was thinking of hanging it over one of the outside walls, so as to keep the building as generic as possible.  Actually, thinking about it - it doesn't matter what I choose, does it?  I can always make another one! D'oh!  Didn't think that through - thanks Calimero

Secret base, though, I like that idea

[dijit]

It looks pretty good. Are the walls just 'slotted'? And how customisable is it? Some internal furniture would be pretty cool. Tables, machinery, etc. A hostage rescue could also be played... there's lots of possibilities on a board like that.

[Argonor]

My first thought her was:

"This needs some KKBB resin scenery from Copplestone!"   

Is mounting board some kind of very thick cardboard?

[keeper]

@Argonor: Yeah, it is the stuff you put behind a picture, before the picture goes in a frame, so that everything is kept nice and flat.  I guess the card is about 1/16th inch (approx 1.6 mm) in thickness.

@dijit: Yep.  The walls are slotted one inch deep on each piece, as the walls are 2 inches high.  Internal furniture is definately on "the list", and it looks good with some of the terrain bits I've painted in the past (barrels, crates, etc.).  It is funny you should say "hostage rescue", though, as that was the first game we played on Friday night!

In terms of modularity, each wall with a door will only go in one direction, either vertically or horizonally, because of the way the slots connecting the walls work.  I've not tried building different layouts with it, yet, but it should be pretty easy, especially if I added a couple more slots and made a few more optional walls.  But it is certainly very workable in terms of just taking out a block of offices to create an open space, if you needed one.

[Braxandur]

Very nice, I might need to nick this idea since I always fancied playing some games in an office with a lot of cubicles. It could then indeed also be used very well for space hulk like games.

Are you going to decorate the walls further? Maybe using some of the worldworks stuff (or other printable wall section).

[keeper]

Good idea Braxandur   I'd not really planned to change it much from its current state, but I could use paper terrain to make it look better.

If I do created some alternate office layouts, which is on the list, it might make them a little warmer this way.

I finished the first of the game reports.  Its on my webpage, and I don't want to just repeat it here, so visit: http://www.azaleanempire.co.uk/ and click on the "Hostage Rescue" link at the bottom of my table of contents, on the left.

[Pil]

Nice office and very cool report! I think you can embellish the terrain a bit further by adding some shading and maybe making the insides a bit lighter/whiter. Most offices have white walls and some kind of coloured carpet, it might help make it look less like bare concrete.

Other than that I really liked the report, and I have some qustions on the rules you used:
1. what rules did you use for the SMG? Just assault rifle rules, machine pistol rules or rules of your own design?
2. was anyone keeping down? I didn't see any counters.
3. why were the hostages dead? (nice twist though )

[Braxandur]

Am I the only one having problems visiting your website? I tried already from to different locations, but everytime I get a 404 page does not exist error

[Argonor]

Am I the only one having problems visiting your website? I tried already from to different locations, but everytime I get a 404 page does not exist error

Same here....

[Pil]

Works for me, try this link directly to the article:

http://www.azaleanempire.co.uk/content/games/nearfuture/CZ-HR-Jan09.htm

[Argonor]

Much better ! 

[keeper]

Sorry about the connection problems, chaps.  No idea what is going on, except that I only registered the domain in the last couple of weeks, so I guess it might not have propogated fully yet.  Are you still having problems?

@Pil:
1. I think we used just the machine pistol rules.  Not 100% exact, but it caught the flavour of what we wanted to do

2. I don't think anyone tried to keep down.  It was such a close-range brutal fight with the models pretty much in CC range as soon as they spotted each other.  A combination of a few short range shots, some point-blank shooting and a bit of CC what the character of almost every encounter.  A little smoke was used, but I didn't add it to the AAR, as it was very ineffective, disipating almost immediately.  We should really have had better rules for the use of smoke indoors.  Plus, we didn't use markers, since there were three gangs of 3, 4 and 5 models each, keeping track of an individual model's status wasn't really an issue in this game.

3. I had to kill the hostages, as they'd seen my face!  You can't have witnesses who know what you look like if you're a top terrorist!  I'd have killed all of the HR team and my hired muscle, if I had had chance.  My gang had left messages with the authorities they were hostages, but they had always intended to kill them.  I'll try and clarify that in the AAR

Off Topic:
Sorry I haven't replied sooner.  I had the fun and excitement of a trip to Peterborough yesterday to renew my passport!  What an exciting experience that was!

[Pil]

Thanks for the explanation, it was an enjoyable read and it really made me want to play Combat Zone again (after out High octane campaign is over that is...).